Psychological Resilience In The State Of Wellbeing: South Australia

Philanthropists, state and local governments, schools and a wide
range of private organisations are investing in the work of measuring
and building wellbeing and resilience, led by the Wellbeing and Resilience Centre
at the South Australian Health and Medical Research Centre (SAHMRI), to
be launched tonight at SAHMRI by the Premier of South Australia, Hon
Jay Weatherill.

Alarming new statistics released by the Australia Bureau of
Statistics (ABS) show that there are seven deaths by suicide per day in
Australia[i].
In the leaked report from the National Mental Health Commission,
recommendations include promoting the wellbeing and mental health of the
Australian community as part of a reform in mental health and suicide
prevention policy.

South Australia has already unleashed a state-wide movement to build
wellbeing and resilience in the population. The approach is based upon
the use of positive psychology in the successful resilience project in
the US Army 2008-15, which found that there were reductions in
catastrophic thinking and diagnoses of substance abuse problems amongst
soldiers who had received resilience training, as well as improvements
to their positive coping skills, adaptability, and optimism[ii].

Over 14,000 South Australians were introduced to the science of positive psychology by Adelaide Thinker in Residence Professor Martin Seligman in 2012-2014.

Premier of South Australia, the Hon Jay Weatherill, said there is
evidence that positive psychology can be used to improve mental health
and reduce mental illness. “In order to be able to meet the challenges that face our State, we
need to build resilience within our schools, organisations and
communities. We want South Australia to become the State of Wellbeing,” Mr Weatherill said.

Mr Raymond Spencer, Chair of SAHMRI and the Economic Development
Board, said evidence shows that an increase in unemployment of 1 per
cent can lead to an increase in suicide of 0.7 per cent[iii].

“As South Australia adjusts to the loss of the auto-industry, we are
determined to build resilience in our population,” Mr Spencer said. “The resilience skills not only protect against mental illness, but
also build individuals’ capacity to innovate, enter new employment and
succeed in a dynamic economic environment.”

SAHMRI’s Mind and Brain Theme Leader, Professor Julio Licinio, said
the fields of psychiatry and psychology have taken a deficit-based
approach to mental health for a long time. “The launch of the Wellbeing and Resilience Centre shows SAHMRI’s
commitment to research the full spectrum of psychological health,
exploring how we can not only decrease mental illness, but also increase
wellbeing,” Professor Licinio said.

The Centre will lead, measure, build, embed and evaluate resilience
projects across South Australia and create a powerful body of evidence
about how to build wellbeing and resilience in different groups of
people, at different ages.

Ms Gabrielle Kelly, Director, Wellbeing and Resilience Centre, said the Slip Slop Slap message told Australia how to change behaviour to reduce skin cancer, and that Positive emotion, Engagement, Relationships, Meaning and Accomplishment (PERMA +) can work in the same way for mental health.

“It can unify and align our all work to build positive mental health,” Ms Kelly said. “Seligman’s research shows that you can improve wellbeing if you improve your PERMA. Also improving optimism, physical activity, nutrition and sleep supports positive mental health. Once this PERMA+ message is out there, everyone has
in their own hands new knowledge about what to do to improve the mental
health for themselves, their families and their businesses.”

The resilience skills training used in South Australia, developed by a
US company for the US military, are now being taught in South Australia
to teachers, health workers, HR leaders, retrenched auto manufacturers,
people aging in community, young disadvantaged people, and
organisations looking to build a more robust workforce.

Future projects will involve resilience training for cancer
survivors, parents of premature babies, staff and clients in aged care
organisations, and the legal and medical professions.